Thursday, February 04, 2010

Tea's world has a lot of homemade toys, art pieces, quilts, etc. These things were made with love by friends and family either for him, or for someone else in the family and eventually passed down to him. He really likes to discuss who made what.

"Granddad made these blocks.""Grandma Cookie sewed my sheets.""Nana made my quilt.""Auntie M and Mama painted those animals."And so on.Because he's 2, we repeat these observations over, and over, and over again.

Today's conversation had a new twist."Who made my play kitchen?""I don't know, sweetie. We bought it in a store.""But who made it?""I don't know. Someone made it and then we bought it from the store. We don't know the person.""But WHO, Mama?""Someone whose job it is to make toys at a toy factory, I guess.""Like Santa Clause at the North Pole maybe?"

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

I measured and he dumped ingredients into the bread maker. After the dough rose ("like the dough the little red hen made") we rolled it into snakes. Some of the shapes we made were more pretzel-like than others.

T brushed on the egg white glaze.

He then meticulously placed pieces of salt and poppy seeds.

I promised T we'd hear the timer, but he refused to budge from the oven while they baked.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

This morning T woke up feeling unwell. I woke up with a budding migraine. I had a sinking feeling as we slogged through breakfast that the day had the potential for a lot of Unfun. I needed a plan that was simple and would partly immobilize T for at least an hour while my painkillers kicked in.

We launched the reading raft. We pushed the couches together and piled them high with quilts and pillows. We stocked the nearby table with lots of books and tea (for me). I pitched the idea that we could switch off reading stories to the teddy bear. He took the bait, and the reading raft kept him snuggled up and quiet for the entire morning.